3399: Getting By With A Little Help From Your Friends by Mark Fisher of MarkFisherFitness on Support Systems

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[00:00:57] This is Optimal Health Daily. Getting by with a little help from your friends by Mark Fisher of markfisherfitness.com. And I'm Dr. Neal Malik. Hey there, welcome back to Optimal Health Daily. This is the podcast where I act as your very own personal narrator and read to you from some of the most popular health and fitness blogs online. Alright, and with that, let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

[00:01:28] Getting by with a little help from your friends by Mark Fisher of markfisherfitness.com. Ninja clubhouses are not for everybody. Not everybody wants to take their fitness with a helping of community or profanity or glitter. I totally get that. By nature, I have always been and will always be an introvert.

[00:01:50] I know this may seem contradictory. After all, I have been totally naked in public, I do speak to large groups of people pretty regularly, and I have a job that requires me to be on much of the time. But the reality is, when left to my own devices, I like to do my own thing. Maybe it was growing up in a big family in a very small house, but me time has always been super important.

[00:02:15] I have an almost compulsive need for autonomy and independence that, to be entirely frank, has not always served me. Take fitness. For many years, I did my own thing. I read every magazine I could get my hands on, and then went in the gym and focused totally on myself. The gym was not social time. It was me time. In retrospect, I probably looked like a jerk. I was usually scowling and generally seeking to avoid eye contact.

[00:02:42] I never hired a trainer, though I probably should have. With the exception of college, I never had a training partner. I like to be able to rely on myself and not have to count on anyone for anything. While I understand this impulse, I also have a vantage point now to see how much I impeded my own progress. Fun fact number one, a group of unicorns is called a blessing. Fun fact number two, I honestly have no clue where this unicorn stuff came from.

[00:03:11] Ninjas seem to dig it, and it is authentically ridiculous, so I'm just running with it. Now, I'm not an unintelligent fellow, and it's easy to become educated about something when it's a passion. I got pretty good results by studying my butt off and working my butt off. But in all honesty, I would have been better off if I had trained in a ninja clubhouse. Study after study shows the key to ongoing fitness success is social support. This is part of why the group model is so effective.

[00:03:40] Not only does it make training more fun, it makes you accountable. If you're working out with your friends, they notice if you're not coming. And obviously, all realms of human achievement benefit from the outside eye and feedback of a skilled coach. The journey to health and hotness is far faster if you have someone guiding you through the inevitable moments of frustration and confusion. I'm now many years into my own fitness journey.

[00:04:06] What I perceived as strength in my lone wolf years was just fear wrapped up in bacon. I thought I was stronger for doing it myself. Nope. I was stubborn. I was stubborn and afraid of getting feedback. Afraid of facing my own patterns of self-sabotage. Afraid of finding out what was convenient or safe was not always the best path to my fitness goals. As Brene Brown says, your vulnerability is the most accurate measurement of courage.

[00:04:35] Sometimes it's scary to be vulnerable and open yourself up. What if the other kids don't like me? What if the trainers are mean? What if the unicorns bite? It's hard to put yourself out there, say you need help, and rely on other folks for guidance and support. But here's the thing. You are vulnerable. No matter what. No one does anything alone in this world. Whether you like it or not, your physical survival is based on an epic, interconnected industrial complex.

[00:05:05] I reject the myth of the lone wolf. It's comforting and it makes us feel cool, like we're riding a motorcycle into the sunset, but there's no such thing. We're all in this together. If you really want success in any realm of human achievement, get comfortable opening yourself up to others. Yes, sometimes it's not going to be fun. Sometimes you're going to get drop kicked in the heart. But it's far better to bleed than live a partial life. Sometimes, we have Disney Day at Mark Fisher Fitness.

[00:05:35] Just because. If you're waffling on your fitness goals, perhaps you need some guidance to ensure you're using the best practices possible. If you know what to do, but are having trouble making it happen, maybe you need to find some social support. There's not a day that goes by that I'm not thankful for the team and Ninja Army. I think I can speak for all of us when we say we're overjoyed to have found each other and to be able to get after our fitness goals in a supportive and nurturing environment.

[00:06:02] But as we often say, Mark Fisher Fitness is not for everyone. That's not lip service. Obviously, I think our methods and results are industry leading. But you may be a better fit for another fitness culture. Unicorns may not be your thing. I get it. But if you're slogging away on your own, hitting the gym and doing the machines, I promise you, you will be better off finding some way to join a community and get coaching. Maybe it's just with a personal trainer to keep you accountable and guide your training.

[00:06:31] Maybe it's with another type of group class environment that's a little more hardcore than us. Or a group class environment that's a little more stead and less ridiculous. Regardless, the point stands. None of us are ever good as all of us. On the journey to health and hotness, we all benefit from community.

[00:06:54] You just listened to the post titled, Getting By With A Little Help From Your Friends, by Mark Fisher of markfisherfitness.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Zootopia 2 has come home to Disney+. Let's go! Get ready for a new case. We're gonna crack this case and prove we're the greatest partners of all time! New friends. You are... Gary the Snake. And your last name? The Snake. Dream team. In new habitats.

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[00:07:50] You'll have the confidence to keep building. Apply today and earn a welcome offer of $1,500 cash back after you spend $50,000 in qualifying purchases on your new card within the first six months of card membership. Terms apply. Learn more at go.amex.graphite. Dr. Neal Malik here with my commentary. I could very much relate to what today's author, Mark Fisher, was saying in today's post. After I got my exercise physiologist personal training certification, I thought I knew everything there was to know about exercise and how to train effectively.

[00:08:20] After all, I'm one of the experts now, right? So, just as Mark said he did, I would go to the gym with a serious and intense look on my face, keep to myself, and made sure nobody bothered me when I was in my zone. At some point, though, I was humbled. I think it was back when the movie 300 came out, and I saw how personal trainers could take actors with no or very little actual fitness experience and make them look like bodybuilders. I thought to myself,

[00:08:50] okay, wow, if there's a style of training out there that can take normal-looking humans and make them look like professional athletes without the use of steroids, I'm missing some very important information. There must be a completely other area of fitness that I'm not aware of. And there was. I had to humble myself, hire my own trainer, I joined group classes, I tried different training styles, I even tried boxing for a bit, and through each experience, I learned a lot.

[00:09:18] I found that I learned the most with group classes. I definitely benefited from hiring a coach too, but in group classes, I could talk to those who have similar struggles, I could pick their brains, talk to those who are hitting their goals that maybe I hope I could someday hit too. I could even talk to them about which shoes they find the most comfortable, because I have a hard time finding athletic shoes that I find comfortable. We learn from each other. And because I'm not perfect, I've been embarrassed in those classes many times.

[00:09:47] I failed at a movement. I come dead last when finishing a workout. I've had to stop in the middle of multiple workouts, and in front of everyone, elevate my feet so I don't pass out or throw up. Because through it all, as today's author Mark Fisher said, we all benefit from being vulnerable at times, and we all benefit from this sense of community, even in the fitness world. All right, that'll do it for today. I hope you have a great rest of your weekend. Thank you so much for listening.

[00:10:16] And of course, I'll be back again tomorrow with more. So I'll see you there, where your optimal life awaits.